| Author | Message | ||
     Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 14 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'm immersed in the remasters and listening to my favorite b-side again. I again pondered the question who is Robert's RnR friend? Robert's lyrics I've come to realize are not ust some abtract arty verse but usually quite personal. I expect it is a real someone and judging from the timing. I suppose it could be Lindy. The liner notes point to Robert being single again and Lindy admittedly living the RnR lifestyle. On the KCRW snap CD they briefly and mysteriously discuss it. Lindy can you shed some light on this if I may ask. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 58 Registered: 04-2005 |
Well, I always assumed it was Lindy. Or could it be Grant? | ||
| Brook Crowley Member Username: 1_fan Post Number: 45 Registered: 02-2005 |
Guys, you're both right. Robert's previous love was Lindy (he apparently dumped her in '87; if I'm wrong, I'm sorry) and now he has a wife named Karen (don't know her last name). However, he's still linked to Grant and that's why they're once again the Go-Betweens. | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 26 Registered: 05-2005 |
Brook Crowley wrote: >Robert's previous love was Lindy (he apparently >dumped her in '87; Let's talk about people disrespectfully as if they don't exist, and don't have any feelings. Let's talk about them as if they were garbage that just gets dumped. While we're at it, let's also be chauvinistic and assume that relationships don't just break down but rather the male gets to dump the female. P.S. It Karin not Karen. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 92 Registered: 08-2004 |
I believe it is about Karin, Grant states on Live On Snap "R 'n' R Friend wasn't on 16LL because Robert hadn't met his R 'n' R Friend" at least until after recording had started. | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 3 Registered: 08-2005 |
You might also want to give consideration to the following facts: (a) Rock 'n' Roll Friend was the only Go-Betweens song played by the Warm Nights during the 1995–96 period; (b) the song was also re-recorded for the Warm Nights album in early 1996, critically, in a manner reminiscent of Dylan's little appreciated 1978 album Street Legal; and (c) the lyric content of On A Street Corner from the Warm Nights album. | ||
| Donat Member Username: Donat Post Number: 67 Registered: 11-2004 |
'On A Street Corner' is Forster's 'Idiot Wind' - no doubt about it. The song sits to strangely after 'Rock 'n' Roll Friend' on the Warm Nights record. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 101 Registered: 10-2004 |
david prestorius said, "You might also want to give consideration to the following facts: (a) Rock 'n' Roll Friend was the only Go-Betweens song played by the Warm Nights during the 1995–96 period..." actually, when i saw robert on that tour, he also played 'love is a sign,' 'head full of steam,' and 'dive for your memory.' not that this has anything to do with anything.... for some reason i never imagined 'rock 'n roll friend' was about anyone robert was intimately involved with or in a band with, but maybe some other, likely australian, 'rock 'n roll friend,' he had probably known for a while. but really, i'm just shooting in the dark here. anyway, carry on.... | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 4 Registered: 08-2005 |
When you 'saw Robert on that tour', presuming you mean the Warm Nights European tour in mid 1996, I think the additions you mention probably just reflected the need for a slightly longer set in that context. But during the developmental phase of Warm Nights, that is to say when the group was working up the songs for the album of the same name, Rock 'n' Roll Friend was the only Go-Betweens song in the set. Donat's point about its positioning on the album is well made. It is also interesting to note that the opening chord sequence of On A Street Corner, which so far as I recall was never played live before being recorded, uncannily recalls Eight Pictures. | ||
| Nic Barnard Member Username: Nic_barnard Post Number: 1 Registered: 06-2005 |
Not sure where this thread is going or what it all means, but for what it's worth, I saw Robert perform On a Street Corner during one of his shows at the Garage in London a couple of years before the Warm Nights album came out. It really stood out because it was the one new song in the set and he did it solo with an acoustic guitar. And because it's just a great song. Looking at the gigography in the website, it must have been the Garage show in 1993. Does that help? | ||
| Roger Griffin Member Username: Roger Post Number: 23 Registered: 11-2004 |
I think RnR Friend is written from the perspective of his lover, who is trying to determine her worth to him relative to his music. Like, "decide now where your priorities lie, please". | ||
| spencer roberts Member Username: Spence Post Number: 21 Registered: 05-2005 |
Well i think it is Grant, during Robert's solo set in '99 at the Fleadah in London, Grant popped up for the said song at the end of the set. And after the song had finished, they both went out of the flap at the back of the stage/tent they were playing in and you could see they walked down some steps together arm overshoulder type thing! It nearly made me weep, very touching i can tell ye! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 30 Registered: 05-2005 |
I've always thought it was Grant too. | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 5 Registered: 08-2005 |
With respect to Nic's post, it's interesting to discover that On A Street Corner dates back to at least 1993 and, therefore, precedes the core group of songs written for Warm Nights in the 1994–95 year. This also, perhaps, sheds some more light on the multiple readings of Rock 'n' Roll Friend (i.e. to the extent that these two songs were written well before the rest of the material on the Warm Nights album). Anyway, below is the set list for the show the subject of the film Warm Nights Late July 1995. loneliness, i can do, it’s o.k. to surrender, half the way home, warm nights, crying love, fortress, i’ll jump, snake skin lady, rock ‘n’ roll friend, loneliness, i can do (encore) (The song It's O.K. To Surrender was a cover, I think by a Sydney group called Flicker) | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 27 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'll run with Roger's theory - I think it's how RF imagines someone else views him, so it's kinda autobiographical imho. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 102 Registered: 10-2004 |
I think I like Roger's theory too. | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 65 Registered: 08-2004 |
Rock'n'roll friend is a great favourite of mine. Following from Roger's post, I get the impression that the lover feels that the relationship is over - that the music has, in fact, won. The refrain 'do something about me' seems full of pathos - as if she/he is asking the rock'n'roll friend to make the first move and end it, allowing the lover to move on. | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 6 Registered: 08-2005 |
One final addendum to Nic's post concerning On A Street Corner and its relation to Rock 'n' Roll Friend. RF confirms the song was written in 1992 and that, in fact, he recorded a version of it during the Calling From A Country Phone sessions — as a duo with John Bone(Rodgers), the classical musician who played violin and piano on that album. That version was not included on the album because RF felt it did not sit well with the rest of the material he recorded at that time. He also thinks that he may have played the song live once or twice in the ensuing years, which confirms Nic's recall of hearing him play it in London in 1993. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 62 Registered: 03-2005 |
I also am a great fan of "Rock n Roll Friend" though I confess I never appreciated the revisit on "Warm Nights." It is worthwhile to remember that Robert would appear on stage now and then in a dress so that the lyrics could actually be from his own viewpoint. The song is a masterpiece of ambiguity. |